<
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31102022/celebrating-victories-in-europe-and-south-america-the-rights-of-nature-movement-plots-strategy-in-a-time-of-crises/>
"SIENA, Italy—The rights of nature movement has celebrated its first European
victory as Spain enshrined into national law the rights of the Mar Menor lagoon
to exist and be protected and preserved.
Mar Menor, Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon, has suffered from massive
die-offs of aquatic life in recent years brought on by pollution from
agriculture, sewage and other development.
In 2020, Eduardo Salazar, a Spanish environmental lawyer, and Teresa Vicente
Gimenez, a professor of philosophy of law at Murcia University, began a quest
for legislative recognition of Mar Menor’s rights, the highest form of
protection under the law, with a “popular legislative initiative,” a
participatory democratic mechanism in Spain’s constitution. Salazar called the
existing conventional environmental laws intended to protect the lake
“useless.”
Salazar and Gimenez described the legislation, which was overwhelmingly
approved by Spain’s legislature, at a meeting here this month of the Global
Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), a legal movement based on the premise
that nature—forests and rivers and wild animals and ecosystems—has inherent
legal rights to exist and regenerate, just as humans possess human rights by
virtue of their existence.
The gathering of more than 60 lawyers, Indigenous leaders, economists and
scientists plotted strategy for the coming decade and took stock of Mar Menor’s
protection and GARN’s other recent triumphs, including Panama’s adoption of
national rights of nature legislation and Ecuadorian Constitutional Court
decisions enforcing the rights of Pacha Mama, or Mother Earth, against harm to
sensitive cloud forests and wild animals."
Via
Future Crunch issue 191:
https://futurecrunch.com/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
